Google Business Profile Service Areas: How to Set Them Up and Hide Your Address

Most advice about Google Business Profile service areas still tells you to “set a 25-mile radius”. You can’t. Google has removed the radius option from service areas altogether.

If you’re a plumber, electrician, mobile roofer or pest controller who goes to the customer, a lot of what you’ll read about these settings is out of date. Some of it will get your profile stuck or suspended.

This guide walks through the settings step by step, using Google’s own Help Centre: hiding your address, choosing up to 20 areas, getting verified without a shopfront, and editing later without tripping anything. For the wider strategy (site structure, town pages, credibility), read our guide to local SEO for service-area businesses.

Step 1: Check You’re Actually a Service-Area Business

Pick the wrong business type and every setting after it is wrong too. Decide which of three types you are before you touch anything.

Google defines a service-area business (SAB) as “a business that visits or delivers to customers directly but doesn’t serve customers at their business address”. Its examples are cleaning services and plumbers.

Google’s hybrid example is a car repair garage that also offers roadside assistance: the garage address stays visible, and the service area covers the roadside work.

Two kinds of business can’t use this setup:

• Online-only businesses. With no in-person service, Google says you’re “not eligible for a Business Profile and can’t be verified”.
• Age-restricted products. Businesses selling things like alcohol or weapons need a shop front.

And a service-area business gets one profile for its whole area. Not one per town.

If customers never come to your address, you’re a service-area business. Carry on. If you’ve got a yard customers can visit during staffed hours, you’re hybrid: keep the address showing and skip Step 2.

Step 2: Enter Your Real Address, Then Hide It

Worried your home address will end up on Google Maps? It won’t. But hiding it doesn’t mean giving Google a fake one.

Google still needs a real address to verify you, even though customers never see it. It goes in privately, then you switch off public display. What you can’t use instead:

• PO boxes or mailboxes at remote locations
• Virtual offices where you don’t actually operate
• A co-working desk, unless it has clear signage, is staffed during opening hours and receives customers

Using one of these to protect your home address isn’t a workaround. It’s the violation. And hiding isn’t an optional privacy setting. Google says you “should only choose to not show your address if your business is a service-area business”. The reverse also applies: an SAB showing an address customers can’t visit is breaking the guidelines.

To hide it:

1. Go to your Business Profile.
2. Select Edit profile, then Location.
3. Next to “Business location”, select Edit.
4. Turn off Show business address to customers.
5. Select Save.

Labels vary as Google updates the interface (some walkthroughs show “Location and areas”), so look for the Location section. Setting up a new profile? If asked whether to add a location customers can visit, answer no.

One trap: if you hide your address and don’t enter a service area, Google says “a local area is chosen for you”. So go straight on to Steps 3 and 4.

If your address was previously visible, hiding it can prompt Google to ask you to verify again. Gail at Map Your Biz treats that as normal, not a red flag.

Toggle off, real address on file, nothing fake anywhere.

Step 3: Plan Your Service Areas: Named Towns and Postcodes, Not a Radius

Plenty of tutorials, including at least one recent YouTube walkthrough, still show a radius option. It’s gone. Google says you can’t set your service area as a radius, and an old radius setting has to be converted to named places. So you need your list before you open the dashboard.

The rules for that list:

• Up to 20 areas. Google’s UK help page lets you base them on cities, postcodes or other areas you serve. BrightLocal confirms you can mix types in one profile.
• About two hours’ drive. Google says your overall area “shouldn’t extend farther than about two hours of driving time from where your business is based”, then adds: “For some businesses, larger service areas may be appropriate.” It’s guidance, not a hard block, though practitioners warn overreaching gets a profile treated as spam.

Use big units where coverage is broad and postcodes where you want precision. One practitioner describes a whole county plus selected zip codes in the next one to stay within the cap.

For example, say you’re a mobile roofer based in Widnes. You might list Widnes, Runcorn, Warrington and St Helens by town, then add only the Liverpool postcode districts you actually take work in.

Don’t pad the list hoping to rank in more places. In September 2026 the local SEO agency Sterling Sky found that “the ranking is based on the address at which the business verified the listing. The only impact that the service area has is visual.” Extra towns won’t bring extra rankings, and the feature isn’t built for national reach.

• Counties: best if you cover a whole rural area. Skip if you only work part of it.
• Postcodes: best if you only work one side of a city. Skip if you’d need more than 20.

By now you should have a list of 20 or fewer places, all genuinely served.

Step 4: Add Your Service Areas in the Business Profile Dashboard

With your list from Step 3, this takes a few minutes.

1. Go to your Business Profile: search your business name on Google while signed in, or go to business.google.com.
2. Select Edit profile, then Location.
3. Next to “Service area”, select Edit.
4. Pick a suggested area or type one in: a town, postcode or other area.
5. Repeat, up to 20.
6. Select Save.

Google says changes can take up to 48 hours to show on your profile. Don’t re-edit because nothing changed after an hour.

If you remember a checkbox saying “I deliver goods and services to my customers”, it’s gone. Service area now sits under Location.

Once it’s live, customers see no map pin and no address. BrightLocal describes it as “a red line around all the areas that your business serves, but no map pin”.

Don’t confuse service areas with your Services list. The Services editor (entries like “Repair toilet”) is a separate setting tied to your category, and Google documents no link between it and your areas.

Old way: tick a box, drag a radius. Now: Location, Service area, named places, Save. Check back after 48 hours.

Step 5: Get Verified Without a Shopfront

One Google Business Profile forum thread sums up the worry: how can a video prove an address nobody is allowed to see?

It doesn’t need to. For an SAB, Google checks that the business is real and that you run it.

You don’t choose the method. The options are phone or text, email, live video call, or post. Google says: “Verification methods are automatically determined by Google and can’t be changed.” Live video calls only happen within your opening hours.

Postcard. Google says codes arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. Edit your business name, address or category while it’s in the post and the code won’t work. That’s why Steps 2 to 4 come first.

Video recording. It must be unedited and continuous with no breaks, at least 30 seconds long, and recorded and uploaded from your phone through your Business Profile. No camera-roll uploads.

Google’s checklist for service-area businesses has three parts:

1. Where you operate: street signs, landmarks or other identifiers near your address. Home-based? Film the neighbourhood.
2. That the business exists: tools, equipment, your workspace, business cards or branded clothing.
3. That you manage it: doing a job, unlocking a van with your branding, or showing a business permit, invoice or utility bill in the business name.

In a Search Engine Land guide, Elizabeth Rule of Sterling Sky suggests treating the branded van as your storefront: park near a recognisable landmark, show the name and tools, unlock it, then show documents. She also advises putting the same name, phone number, service areas and hours on your website at least a week before you verify. UK-friendly documents include your business registration, insurance documents or a utility bill in the business name.

Google says video reviews take up to five working days. If rejected, you’re given specific reasons, such as “No nearby area shown”, and can record again. Our Google Business Profile verification guide covers every method.

If you’re offered video, gather your documents and plan your route round the van before you hit record.

Step 6: Edit, Narrow or Remove Areas Without Breaking Your Profile

Service areas aren’t set-and-forget, but some edits have knock-on effects. Know which before you change a live profile.

Remove an area: Edit profile, then Location, then Edit next to Service area. Remove it under “Selected service areas” and select Save.

You can’t go to zero. Google says removing every service area means becoming a shop front business with your address on your profile.

Moving your base means re-verifying. Changing the address of a verified business, even a hidden one, means verifying again.

Don’t stack big edits. Search Engine Land advises one major change (name, address, category) at a time, with a day or two between them. That’s practitioner advice rather than a published Google rule, but it costs nothing to follow.

And visibility? Google publishes nothing on how narrowing or expanding your areas affects rankings, and Sterling Sky’s finding is that rankings come from your verified address, not the list. Rankings do vary across an area, though: BrightLocal notes performance “can vary significantly from one neighborhood to the next”. So check from several locations, not one search at your kitchen table. Our guide to checking your Google Maps rankings shows how.

Keep your website in step: the towns on your “areas we cover” page should match your profile. For building those pages, see our guide to local SEO for service-area businesses.

Make one change, wait, then check. If you’d rather someone looked over your setup, tell us what you do and where. We’ll tell you straight whether it needs changing.

FAQ

Can I use my home address for a service-area Business Profile?

Yes, as the private address Google verifies against, as long as you hide it from customers. What you can’t do is swap in a PO box, a remote mailbox or a virtual office you don’t work from. Those break Google’s guidelines even though the address would be hidden.

Can I still set a service area radius on Google Business Profile?

No. Google removed the radius option, and an old radius setting has to be converted to named places. You can list up to 20 towns, postcodes or other areas instead, and mix those types in one profile.

Will adding more service areas help me rank in more places?

No. Sterling Sky’s September 2026 analysis found that rankings are based on the address you verified with, and the service area’s only impact is visual. More towns change the outline customers see, not where you rank. Google also caps you at 20 areas and asks for roughly two hours’ drive, so padding only adds risk.

Can I set my service area to cover the whole UK?

Generally, no. Google’s guidance is that your area shouldn’t extend beyond about two hours’ driving time from your base, though larger areas may suit some businesses. The feature is built for local search. If you sell nationwide, that’s your website’s job.

Will hiding my address hurt my Google Maps rankings?

Google doesn’t say, and local SEO practitioners disagree: some argue addressless profiles are at a disadvantage. Sterling Sky’s finding is that ranking comes from the address you verified with, which Google keeps on file whether it’s shown or hidden. Either way, an SAB showing an address customers can’t visit breaks Google’s guidelines, and practitioners agree a suspension costs far more than any ranking difference.